The patient was an older lady who had liver cancer. During the surgery, they saw that a tumor had attached to the diaphragm and therefore got very difficult to remove. It seems that they punctured the diaphragm in the process which took a lot of time to fix. After they fixed the diaphragm, another surgeon was called to do an echo. It was probably to make sure they had the right part of the liver and to see from where to where they had to cut. Our surgeon let us knew what he’d be removing by showing the parts on the pictures but in reality, it was a lot bigger. It sure looked like as if about 75% of the liver was removed. As said before, I was finally able to take some photos and it can be clearly seen there how big the dissected part was. After the resection, we were allowed to feel the liver and its tumors. It was amazing. Again, I made videos of that too. Last but not least, I was allowed to stand really, really close to him so I could take some photos from up close. He’s an example of how every surgeon should be: an expert in his field and one willing to teach others. The surgery took over 4.5-5 hours but it was worth every second of it.

Surgery was never a field I had a particular interest in (nor a disinterest), but after seeing these surgeries, I must say that it has grown on me. Who knows…

WARNING: The videos and photos are not for the faint of heart.

Ferrara Day 28: Liver Resection
Ferrara Day 28: Liver Resection 2
Ferrara Day 28: Liver Resection 3

Gallery is after the break.

Ferrara Day 25: Soccer
Ferrara Day 25: Soccer 2

The storm quickly resolved and we were able to go to the house party. I had something in mind (some kind of villa; I thought the man would probably be quite wealthy). I was close. Wow, that house was huge. And very beautiful. Especially the surroundings were breathtaking and very tranquil. The food we were offered: delicious, just delicious. Real, Italian food. Man, it was good. Do you mind if we come again, sir?

Videos:

Ferrara Day 24: Storm
Ferrara Day 24: Storm 2
Ferrara Day 24: Storm 3

Gallery is after the break.

As for the sun…It was nice, but I managed to get first degree burns on my feet from walking on the sand (it was so hot that it actually hurt like hell! Literally.). Not to mention my burnt ankles and back when I got home…Unfortunately, I did not take any photos this day (didn’t want to bring the camera).

Our first surgery would be a cholecystectomie, the removal of the gallbladder. There was a patient lying on the surgery table and I thought it was the previous patient that was finished and being prepped for post-op. The patient was actually being prepped for the surgery we were about to see. I didn’t realise a pre-op would be so long (the patient did have a medical history though). Anyhow, after being prepped, the surgeon wanted to remove the gallbladder through a laporascopie but due to complications in the belly (the gas blown into the belly could not be regulated, which caused instability of the heart) the surgeon had to make a cut near the liver and remove the gallbladder ‘the classic way’. It took way longer than the surgeon had anticipated and we noticed he got a bit annoyed by that. Finally, the gallbladder was removed and he gave us the opportunity to feel the gallbladder (and its gallstones) with our hands. I was amazed by the precision and carefulness of the surgeon. I loved it.

The second surgery was a thyroidectomie, the removal of the thyroid. We had a lecture so we kind of entered during the latter part of the surgery. It probably was the most interesting part as well, so we were quite lucky. Again, with amazing precisions the surgeons had to cut away the thyroid without damaging the nearby nerve and trachea. After removing the thyroid, he showed the nodule in the thyroid which was the reason why it had to be removed. The tissue was then sent to the department of anatomy pathology for microscopic examination. Turns out it was a benign nodule.

The kind surgeon showed us how the surgery exactly went and what stuff had to be paid attention for in order to do a successful surgery post-op.

I can not wait for my next surgery…Which is tomorrow!

Regardless, Venice is beautiful. Even though it wasn’t anything I had expected (expectations probably formed by movies and such), it was a real treat for your eyes to see Venice. Many photos have been made and will be posted eventually.

However, as beautiful as Venice might be, I could not live there. The ‘living’ areas of Venice are quite bland and nothing special once you’ve seen one of the streets: they all look the same.

Day 15 (Friday) wasn’t much interesting, except for another boring (but okay English) lecture and group discussion regarding the case (Water management in Bangladesh: it can’t be less medical than this case!). After that, we rejoiced with Wendy to drink some cappuccino and went to the arcade not long thereafter.

I haven’t written about it yet, but we do go to the arcades quite a bit. Most games are junk, but there are (for me) two particular machines that really makes me want to go and play there. The first is, obviously, Dance Dance Revolution. I used to dance a lot at home on my mat, but got lazy and never did it anymore. With the arcade, this is the first time I’ve ever used the bar behind me to stabilize myself in order to do quick steps. I have to say, my steps are improving with the usage of the bar due to the balance improvements.

The second machine which is definitely worth going to the arcades for is the basketball hoop. The goal is just to throw as many balls in the hoop as you can to get a high score. It’s possible to do it with two players. Obviously, our goal was to improve the current high score. Our highest was 144 (high score at the time was 163) for the last couple of days, but Jeroen and I finally managed to beat the score with 178 today (I only took a photo of our previous high score 171, so hopefully, the 178 score is still there so I can take a new photo of it ;p)

While we were doing intensive (yes, yes) sports on an arcade machine, Tessy and Wendy would wander and throw some coins in gamble games where you win tickets. These tickets can then be traded for items. To my surprise, both of them had extreme luck. We have some photos with them winning a jackpot and other large ticket amounts.

Tuesday was a day in the park. It sort of became a picknick and we held a whole day of siesta in the grass. Yes, I know, lazy. But that’s Italy.

While grabbing our lunch, we saw these dressed up people all going the same way. We knew that it was the Palio, a tradition that is celebrated here in Ferrara every year. It was wonderful to see them going towards the tribunes where horse races would be held. I took loads of photos and recorded (Jeroen mostly, because I had to take the photos) many movies as well. I’m hoping to compile them when I get back home so I give you all an impression of what it’s like. As for the photos, I’ll try to make a selection of them sooner or later.

The park, the area outside the walls and shops we visited during the day were nice, however.

Twas time for the laundry and since we all had to do quite some laundry, we decided to design a magnificent construction to put our clothes on for drying. See the photos for the results.